View from the rooftop

We arrived in Varanasi late in the evening and spent a while navigating the labyrinthine alleyways of ‘Old Town’ to find the hotel of which we had received great reviews. We quickly learned the huge hotel was full…but we could stay in the dormitory. Preferring to be in a shared space than wandering the busy alleyways, we quickly agreed to the dorm. The fellow encouraged us to take a look first. My heart was racing and I was gasping for breath by the time we reached the eighth floor. Expecting to find a room full of bunkbeds, we strolled out onto the roof…and there was no sign of anyone staying in the ‘dorm’. They pulled out two army cots for us, and we spent two beautiful nights under a tin roof in the open breeze of Varanasi. (We did also have a cage around us to keep out the marauding monkeys who proved to be the kings of the rooftops…and kindly served as our wakeup call the first morning as a troup of them scampered across the tin roof just above our heads.) In the mornings, we watched women washing clothes on the rooftops and the brilliant laundry flying in the wind against the tan and gray buildings. In the afternoons, boys played modified games of cricket and flew kites from the flat rooftops…a world away from the activity going on by the riverside and the dark, hectic alleyways several stories below. The sun rose and set over the hazy skyline with the wide green-blue river defining the city, and it felt as if we had the best view in the city.